Analysis by Region
Flight schedules within Europe are down by 8.5% compared to April 2008, with 50,854 fewer flights. Capacity within the region is down by 6.6% with 4.7 million fewer seats on offer.  International services to and from the region are holding up much better, with declines of just 1.7% in frequencies and 1% in seat capacity.

North America continues to experience significant cutbacks in airline service, with a 9% downturn in flight volumes within the region (81,900 flights) and 8.1% in capacity (6.6 million seats).  Frequencies and capacity to and from the region have dropped by 6.2% and 5.6% respectively.

Latin America is faring slightly better.  Intra-regionally, this month’s figures show a decline of 12,234 flights (down 6.4%) with 877,000 fewer seats (down 4.7%), while services to and from the region are down by 2,969 flights (4.9%) and 233,000 seats (2.4%).

Figures for Asia are relatively stable compared with April 2008.  For services to and from the region, there is a 1.4% drop in capacity (down by 181,000 seats) on 2.1% fewer flights.  Capacity within the region shows a welcome rise of 3.4% (2.6 million more seats) with 7,244 more flights (up by 1.4%).

The Middle East region is enjoying a significant upward trend on all counts.  Flights and capacity for travel within the region are up by 11.9% and 10.8% respectively, while the number of flights and seats offered to/from the region are both showing healthy growth year on year of 15% for April 2009. This represents an additional 5,701 flights and 1.2 million seats on offer.

Flights to and from Africa are up by an impressive 6% (1,753 more flights) with a 7% increase in capacity of 391,000 more seats, although flights within the region are down by 1.6% with a marginal 0.1% decline in capacity compared to April 2008.

Analysis by Country – Highlights: 
The UK is experiencing significant cutbacks, both domestically and internationally.  Frequencies and capacity within the UK are down year on year by 13.1% and 14.1% respectively, representing a drop of 5,078 flights and 476,000 seats for the month.  Airlines have scheduled a total of 33,783 domestic UK flights this month; the last time the April figures for the UK were lower than this was in 2001. 

International services to and from the UK are down by 9.8% (11,237 fewer flights) with a 8.7% fall in capacity, or 1.6 million fewer seats.   

The UK low cost sector is not escaping the cutbacks, with a 16.5% drop in domestic services and 16.1% fall in seat capacity. Internationally the low cost airlines have scheduled 4,887 fewer flights to/from the UK (down by 11.4%) with an 11.6% reduction in capacity of 853,000 fewer seats.

Top five European countries ranked by cutbacks in international capacity:

1. United Kingdom (1.6 million fewer seats)
2. Spain (614,000 fewer seats)
3. Germany (554,000 fewer seats)
4. Sweden (465,000 fewer seats)
5. Poland (415,000 fewer seats)

Top five European countries ranked by cutbacks in domestic capacity:

1. Spain (503,000 fewer seats)
2. United Kingdom (476,000 fewer seats)
3. Germany (376,000 fewer seats)
4. Sweden (235,000 fewer seats)
5. France (57,000 fewer seats)

Airline services to/from China are also in decline this month by 10.1% (3,333 fewer flights) and 9% drop in capacity (595,000 fewer seats). However, this is buoyed by continuing growth in China’s domestic market which shows a 20.8% rise in flights (27,087 more services) and a 22.2% rise in capacity (4.2 million additional seats) for April 2009 versus April 2008.

Airline services in the U.S. are down by 75,853 flights (-9.4%) with 6.6 million fewer seats on offer (-8.8%). International service is down year on year by 5.1% for frequencies and capacity (6,019 fewer flights and 954,000 fewer seats).

Analysis by Airport – Highlights:
The airport with the highest capacity cut for April 2009 compared to April 2008 is Chicago O'Hare, with a downturn of 788,418 seats (down by 10.1%).  When the figures are analysed by volume of cutbacks in scheduled service operations, Chicago O’Hare again has the largest decline with 7,398 fewer flights (down by 10%).

In terms of growth, Beijing Airport has the highest growth in scheduled service for this month, with an additional 5,497 flights (up by 16.7%) and 982,000 more seats (up by 15.9%).

Analysis by Major Routes
The OAG figures for April reveal a mixed bag on the key long-haul routes.  Activity between North America and Asia Pacific is down by the largest margin, with reductions of 10.1% in the volume of flights and 11% in seat capacity.  There is a significant reduction on routes between North America and Western Europe with a 9% drop in frequencies and 7.4% decline in capacity. Conversely, routes between Western Europe and the Middle East, and between Western Europe and Africa, are showing an upturn in capacity of 15.2% and 4.8% respectively compared with April 2008.

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OAG FACTS enables you to see trends at-a-glance. An easy to use tool providing the latest data on current airline activity around the world. Updated monthly, it uses interactive graphs to display a visual trend of the performance of a specific airport, route, country or region from 2001 - 2009.